"Konami Code" Creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto Dies

There are a lot of infamous cheat codes in games, but none quite reach the level of the "Konami code:" up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. The creator of this code, Kazuhisa Hashimoto, reportedly died yesterday.

This was first posted online by composer Yuji Takenouchi, and later confirmed in a tweet from Konami.

"We are saddened to hear about the passing of Kazuhisa Hashimoto, a deeply talented producer who first introduced the world to the 'Konami Code,'" the company said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with Hashimoto-san's family and friends at this time. Rest In Peace."

No more information has been made known at this time.

Hashimoto worked on several well-known games from the '90s era, including Snatcher and Gradius. It was during the creation of the NES port of Gradius that Hashimoto reportedly created the code to make the game easier on himself.

"Because I was the one who was going to be using it, I made sure it was easy to remember," Hashimoto said in a 2003 interview. "The game took around half a year to develop, and, at the time, putting the code together was like an entertaining puzzle."

It would later be added to many other games, and even become an easter egg in its own right, appearing on Canadian websites and even coded into Fisher Price toys. One developer's helpful development tool ended up becoming one of the most well-known series of inputs in gaming.

Lead image via MobyGames.